Microsoft Starts Integrating Skype Into Office

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Microsoft announced its plans to buy the popular peer-to-peer VoIP service Skype in early 2011 and the acquisition closed last October. Since then, though, Microsoft mostly left Skype alone and continued to run it as a stand-alone product. With the release of the next version of Office, Microsoft is now integrating Skype closely into its office productivity suite. Skype will, for example, now power the “presence” feature in Outlook and – just like Yammer, Microsoft’s most recent acquisition – will become a default part of every version of Office.

It’s not clear if Microsoft is building other parts of Skype (including video chat) directly into its Lync communications platform for Office. According to Microsoft, though, Skype users will be able to “integrate Skype contacts in Lync.” Chances are that today’s announcement is just the beginning of Skype’s integration into more Office products.

Office 365, the new subscription-based version of Office, will now also offer its users 60 minutes of Skype credit per month. Microsoft hasn’t released many details about this service, but with the exceptions of mobile numbers in some countries and “special, premium and nongeographic numbers,” this should allow Office 365 Home Premium users to call phones virtually anywhere in the world. Microsoft hasn’t released any information about pricing for any of its Office 365 editions.

OverviewSkype is for doing things together, whenever you’re apart. Skype’s text, voice and video make it simple to share experiences with the people that matter to you, wherever they are. With Skype, you can share a story, celebrate a birthday, learn a language, hold a meeting, work with colleagues – just about anything you need to do together every day. You can use Skype on whatever works best for you …